


A Caged Bird Stands on the Grave of Dreams

by ivorytelling



Category: Teen Wolf (TV), Zoo City - Lauren Beukes
Genre: Alternate Universe - Prison, Alternate Universe- Zoo City, Familiars, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 16:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3389102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorytelling/pseuds/ivorytelling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek and his wolf are eight years, one hundred and eleven days and thirteen hours into a prison sentence when his cell mate is murdered. By day one hundred and fifteen his new cell mate moves in and turns Derek's life upside down.</p><p>Stiles Stilinski, is sixteen hours into a prison sentence when he arrives at California's AC Prison. Three changes of clothes, a pair of grey pumps, a toothbrush and a single bar of soap the only things to his name.</p><p>Will Stiles be able to convince his new cell mate he's innocent even with a fox by his side claiming otherwise?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Caged Bird Stands on the Grave of Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, so this is my first teen wolf fic, so pls go easy on me! It's an alternate universe fic crossed with Lauren Beukes Zoo City, which is such an amazing book! If you haven't read it then I encourage you to.  
> You don't need to have read the book to understand this fic but I'm going to be using language from the book so I'll put translations at the end (beginning?) of every chapter and anything else that might need further details. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!  
> Title from Maya Angelou, The Complete Collected Poems  
> _____
> 
> In the Zoo City universe when you commit murder or are at fault for someone's death an animal will be physically linked with you. This is called being animaled or becoming a mashavi.
> 
> _____
> 
> I do not own Teen Wolf or Zoo City and don't claim to, I'm just writing a piece of fiction using two awesome pieces of work! :)

Derek had been alone in his cell for three nights when one of the guards walks by and whispers in hushed tones that they were moving someone new in tomorrow morning. Derek doesn't respond, just lets out a heavy breath. He'd been getting used to having his own space again, something that you didn't have much of in here. His last cell mate, Joseph, had been an alright guy. He stayed to his half of the cell, didn't touch Derek's stuff without permission and jerked off to a bare minimum when he knew Derek was awake, that made him an decent enough person in Derek's eyes. He'd even been kind of sad when one of the guards made eye contact with him across the cafeteria and shook his head after Joseph hadn't come in for dinner, confirming what Derek had been already thinking. Someone got to Joseph's animal.

That was the trouble with most people in here being a mashavi, it represented you. The guys without an animal were kept separate, in a whole other block to the animaled. It was open season for the rest of them. The higher up the food chain your animal was, the higher up you were here. It's a blessing for those with the big cats or that one guy who has a rhino, ain't no one going to mess with a guy who has a rhino permanently by his side. For the guys who were cursed with the mice, the otters, or like Joseph's peacock, you just weren't going to make it. Selfishly, Derek was glad that whoever had done Joseph in hadn't done it anywhere near Derek. The sound people made when their animal was killed was almost inhuman and Derek knew that he'd be dreaming about it constantly if he had heard it.

Derek turned his head towards his wolf who was led at the bottom of his bed, eyes closed and breathing deeply. It was a system they'd worked out pretty quickly when they got here, only one of them slept at a time, the other stayed watch. Apparently even with a wolf by your side you're still fresh meat. And by hell the guys in here were hungry.

He'd been sixteen when he first met his wolf. She approached him before Paige's skin had even cooled. Any other time Derek would have freaked out at the sight of a huge, black wolf standing over him, eyes almost mesmerising they were so blue and teeth, white and sharp- but he'd been expecting it. As soon as he'd heard Paige's last breath pass her stained lips he'd been waiting for his animal to show up. She'd sat across from him and waited with him until his mother had found him hours later, still clutching at the body in his arms. That night he didn't sleep, he led in his bed with his face tucked in the soft fur against his wolfs chest and sobbed until his body couldn't take any more and he passed out. And from that night she hadn't left his side since.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he noticed the shadow fall across the floor, extending from the open door. Scott stood in the doorway, his back against the frame- he knew better than to come into Derek's room uninvited- without saying a word. He did this sometimes, would just stand there and wait for Derek to ask what he wanted and on principle Derek sometimes didn't ask at all. This time however he broke the silence, “Worried about your new cell mate?”

Scott sighed and moved further into Derek's cell, his Alsatian one step behind him. And taking Derek's acknowledgement as an invitation, it wasn't but Derek let it slide, he made himself comfortable. He dragged the single chair in the room so that it was facing Derek's bunk and sat down heavily, hand instinctively going to the dogs head. “What if he's like the last one? Or worse, what if he's like Isaac's?” They'd all had their fair share of bad cell mates, enough people and animals got shived that they were constantly being moved in and out. They often joked that they should just install a revolving door. Scott's last cell mate was okay, as far as cell mates went, him and his lemur were just damn annoying and when he got parole Scott was glad to see him leave. Isaac's was worse. Isaac was one of the unlucky one's when it came to unofficial ranking, his floppy eared rabbit was slow and cute, which made for a deadly combination in here. Especially with him being paired with some Russian Mafia guy that strutted up and down the cell block with a panther. Needless to say, neither Isaac or his rabbit got much sleep when the lights went off.

Derek shrugged, he had nothing to worry about unless his cell mate had a lion or something. “You know the game, Scott. You play with the hand you've been dealt.” His wolf sat up, slowly, taking in the newcomer in the cell. It took a long time for her to tune herself into Derek's emotions so that she could trust his opinion on people. And even longer for Derek to tune himself into hers. Maybe if he'd adjusted sooner then he wouldn't have trusted Kate so readily and maybe his family would still be here. 

Scott huffed, dramatically and threw his hands up, “It's not fair that they do this, why can't they just put us in together?”

“You know it doesn't work that way, Scott.” The official spiel that they rattled off was that each inmate was paired to another that would compliment them and aid their rehabilitation. That was bullshit and everyone knew it, Isaac knew it more that most.

In truth, Derek wasn't worried about Scott's or his new cell mates at all, both of their animals would protect them in a heart beat and they both knew it. Just through the way that the Alsation had positioned himself between Scott and the open cell door told Derek that he didn't need to worry, Scott would be fine.


End file.
